I’d had to go back home to scrub the scent off me once I was done, sneaking into one of the mostly unused bathrooms on the first floor so I wouldn’t happen upon any members of my family. I didn’t feel up to another interrogation. It’d taken nearly an hour of repeated lathering and rinsing to get it all off.
I’d been fortunate enough not to wig out like I had with Kelly during our first night together, though it felt bizarre to know that a fireplace could trigger me faster than a deceased human being set ablaze. At least I hadn’t had to kill the guy myself since an attendant at the morgue had owed me one.
Small favors.
“Connections are the real currency, am I right? Along with intel.”
I didn’t bother to respond. Dante jumbled his words as he spoke, sweating so profusely that stains soaked through his three-piece suit. He was such a jittery mess that I hoped he wouldn’t give himself away. “I suggest you change. The less you look like your usual self, the better.”
I pointed at a garment bag hanging from my door. In it, I had jogging clothes and other similar accessories including a baseball cap to cover his receding hairline, but nothing to draw the eye. The best solution in these situations was always to hide in plain sight.
As he vanished into the bistro’s restroom, I glanced at my watch. The Buick would arrive momentarily, and it was closing in on one in the morning. I was eager to get out of here. It’d been hours since I’d seen Kelly, and I just wanted to lose myself in her floral aroma and forget about everything to do with this night.
Every single thing.
21
Kelly
By the time Marco slipped into bed with me it was nearly two in the morning. Ever since Friday I’d had this strange feeling, this sinking coldness in the pit of my stomach. I both wanted to know and didn’t want to know what he’d been doing. What his “errands” had entailed. I’d begun to feel this nervous trepidation any time he left me to go off on his own, as if he might not make it back to me. As if I might not ever see him again.
Which frustrated me to no end. David’s insistence that I bug Marco’s office was doing terrible things to my head. I’d done as my brother had asked, planting the miniscule device in the headset of Marco’s landline phone. Then, after I’d gone back to the suite, I’d felt so guilty. What was I doing, allowing David to listen in on Marco’s personal conversations?
I trusted Marco. If he needed to attend to business outside the bistro, then that shouldn’t be cause for concern or worry. He was a wealthy business owner with lots of things on his plate. I didn’t know what he did when I wasn’t with him, but I didn’t need to know. All I needed to know was that I loved this man and he loved me. That was enough.
So the fact that the pit in my stomach refused to go away even once Marco pulled me against him wasn’t much of a comfort, especially when he buried his face in my hair as if to hide. He took one long breath after another, as if attempting to breathe me in, as if something had rattled him. Instead of blindly letting him, I turned on the lamp by my side of the bed.
He blinked at me in surprise, his eyes squinted against the light. I took in the pallor of his complexion, the slight shakiness to his frame. “You feeling okay?” I asked him, putting a hand to his forehead.
“Yeah, baby, I’m fine,” he answered, but it sounded as if he’d poured something corrosive down his throat.
“You don’t look fine.”
“Just had a long night. All I want to do is wrap myself up in you and go to sleep.” He tightened his arms around me and closed his eyes as if to do exactly that.
I realized he wasn’t going to volunteer the reason why his night had been long. I wanted to know, needed to, even. I thought about how my dad had concealed the fact that he’d been laid off from my mother and the issues that had caused them, continued to cause them.
I couldn’t let it go.
“Tell me why.” I made it sound like a request.
“Why?”
“Why it was a long night.”
He paused a moment, then said, “I had a lot to do in a short time.”
Well, that didn’t answer my question at all. “A lot of what?”
He went from relaxing against me to becoming very still. It was a subtle change but also noticeable. I waited a beat, then another. At last, he said, “Mostly meetings.”
Why was getting any answers out of him suddenly like pulling teeth? We’d always had this easy flow of communication between us, but there was nothing easy about our conversation tonight.
“Meetings?” I prompted.
“Yeah, meetings,” he said tersely, bolting up into a seated position. He hadn’t quite snapped at me, but there was definite frustration in his voice. Then, he released a gust of air as he rubbed at both eyes. His voice grew softer again. “I met with my brothers, and we don’t always get along. Alessandro specifically got under my skin earlier and pissed me off. But that’s no excuse for me to take it out on you. I’m sorry.”
Maybe I shouldn’t have been relieved by his answer, but I was. As much as I loved my family, I knew how much they could either drain me or drive me crazy. I thought of what my own brother had talked me into doing and felt a surge of shame. As soon as I got a minute alone in Marco’s office, I’d remove that stupid listening device and take it back to David.